

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap._:^.?._. Copyright 
Shelf 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




4 


4 • 








I 

1 




5 



4 


y 


e 

k 



« 




% 













t 


« • 


♦ ' 


✓ 






% 



• ^ ! 

#V 


P 




i 


/ 


\ 




4 


♦ 


I 













T V 






« 

» 






A 


1 




t 





I 


s 






y * 


4 


4 


.V' 


; 




» 


» 


« 


I 



I 




1 


I 


« ^ 







V^ 


I 






« 

I 


1 


\ 



I 


I 



4 






f • 

.< 

t 

I 





4 






» • 

« 


4 


f 


4 


y 


X 






I 












k 

4 


« 


» I 

I. 

r 




4 


ft 



V 



M 




\ 



•S 


f 

.1 # 




t 



« 




ft I 


% 


I 









»■ 

• • 1 

• %/ 



'.-M 


Aik' I 




\ 



4 



# 



1 



f 








4 

•S 


t 


I 


> « 


( 



♦ 




♦ 






' • 

I 


t 


n 



K 


I 


s 







i 



* 


r 





I 






i^ee page 41.) 




ME AND MY DOLLS 


The Story of the Joys and Troubles of Miss 
"Bo-Peep and Her Doll Family 


TO WHICH IS ADDED 


THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF 
MOPSY AND HANS 


/ 

BY ^ ■ 

L. T. MEADE ) 


AUTHOR OF “the CHILDREN’S PILGRIMAGE,” 
“ BERESFORD PRIZE,” “ BETTY, A 
SCHOOLGIRL,” ETC. 


CllustratfU 



BOSTON 

LO'THROP PUBLISHING COMPANY 


^nel CONY 
^ 1898 . 


T'liVC uunto hcUcIVED* 


Copyright, i8g8, 

BY 

Lothrop Publishing Company. 


Colonial ^rcss : 

Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
Boston, U. S. A. 


CONTENTS. 


. ME AND MY DOLLS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Myself; also Peep-Bo . . . 7 

II. My Caravan ..... 13 

III. My Dolly Lullaby . . -17 

IV. Out of Bed at the Wrong Side . 22 

V. Down the Stairs to the Garden ' 27 

VI. Down in a Drift . . . -31 

VII. My Lost Dolly . . . *35 

VIII. A Great Fuss .... 40 

IX. A Shop Dolly .... 45 

X. I Am Fretting .... 49 

XL Going to Look for Lullaby . 53 

XII. Found -57 

MOPSY AND HANS. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

1 . In the Garden . . . -63 

11 . The Old Woman Comes for Them 68 

III. They Grow Small .... 73 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER PAGE 

IV. They Arrive at the Shoe . . 78 

V. They Breakfast .... 83 

VI. The Whip 88 

VII. The Old Woman Falls Asleep . 93 

VIIL They Run Away from the Shoe . 98 

IX. The Old Woman Wakes Up . .103 

X. Time to Go to Bed . . .107 

XL Mopsy Rebels . . . . .112 


XII. Mopsy and Hans Go Back to Their 

Home . . . . *117 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


\ 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 

PAGE 

“ I USED TO CRY FOR Lullaby ” . Frontispkce 
“Ellen is now writing it down” . . lo 

“‘I AM READY NOW, FrANKIE,’ I SAID ” . 2 \ 

“ ‘ O Frankie ! are we deep enough now 1 ’ ” 32 

“Ellen came and sat by me” ... 36 

Cook and Bo-peep . . . . • . 50 

“I SANG MY DOLLY TO SLEEP ” ... 58 

MOPSY AND HANS. 

“ ‘ Have you come to see us ? ’ said Mopsy ” 62 

The Shoe 80 

“He threw the whip out as far as it 

COULD GO ” . . . . .90 

“ The whole party danced down the nar- 
row STAIRCASE ” .... 96 

“ A MOMENT LATER THEY WERE ALL SWARM- 
ING DOWN THE dock-leaf-tree” . lOO 

“ All the children were folding their 


CLOTHES 




ME AND MY DOLLS 







ME AND MY DOLLS. 


CHAPTER I. 

myself; also peep-bo. 

I don’t think I am at all young : I am 
five. 

Johnny is only two, and the baby — of 
course she is just a tiny thing ; but I am 
big and rather old. I can run fast, and 
jump, and go round and round without 
being at all giddy. Nursie said once 
that Miss Bo-Peep must have a very 
strong head. I don’t know quite what 
she meant, for I had not knocked it 


7 


8 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


against anything. I was just flying round 
and round the nursery, and Johnny was 
screaming and trying to follow me, and 
Frank was lashing his whip, because he 
was pretending that I was a pony, and 
that he was my master. 

Frank is seven ; he is very tall, and very 
strong. He is nearly grown up, and he 
can read and write. 

I know my A B C as far as K, and I 
can do “ A was an apple pie,” and a bit of 
“ The House that Jack built,” but I can- 
not read and I cannot write, though I try 
very hard, and I do want to write so 
badly. 

I want to write about my dolls. One 
of my dolls is lost, — I will tell you about 
her by and by. Then I have a doll called 
Molly, — she has only one arm, — and 
Peep-Bo, who has a funny head. Peep- 


myself; also peep-bo. 


9 


Bo was called after me, ’cause I am Bo- 
Peep, though my real, real own name is 
Maggie. 

You see, people, that I have lots and 
lots to tell; and last night, when I was 
woke by baby crying because he is cutting 
his eye-tooth, I thought of my Lullaby, 
my doll that was lost in the snow. 

I said, very soft, because I didn’t want 
to wake anybody, “ Nursie ! ” 

N ursie said, “ Do not make a noise, 
Bo-Peep!” 

I wasn’t making a noise. I was only 
saying “ Nursie.” I began to cry, and at 
last I roared, and Nursie jumped out of 
bed and said, “ What’s the matter. Pet ? ” 

I knew Nursie was not angry when she 
said “ Pet,” and I said, with my cheek up 
against Nursie’s ear, “Nursie, Pm think- 
ing of Lullaby, that was lost in the snow,” 


lO 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


“Oh! that doll!” Nursie said. “It is 
months and months ago since she was 
lost. Go to sleep, Miss Bo-Peep, and do 
not be silly.” 

Then I knew Nursie had almost for- 
gotten my dolly; and, of course, if Nursie 
would forget, so would Frank, and per- 
haps soon there would be no people that 
would remember her. I knew then that 
it must be written down. 

Ellen is now writing it down. 

Ellen is the under-nurse, and she helps 
Nursie to take care of me and Frank and 
Johnny and Baby. 

I love Ellen, she has such a softy face, 
and I like her eyes because they are big 
and . stick out. I like eyes that stick 
out, because my dolly’s did. 

Now I will begin about my dolls. 

I will tell first about Peep-Bo, be- 





“ELLEN IS NOW WRITING IT DOWN 






i 




% 


ft • «r-’ 




't' 




A : 










■*i: 


■> 

I 


C , • ‘ f 




b i 

\ . 


/ 




I r 


r '*' • *' . 

I . ' v‘V<. i,< ' • • > j5 

■ • I 




1 « 


. ^ 


> 








j*\ 




^ - 




•*' 




■ i 


K 




• j , • 






W^* 




myself; also peep-bo. 


1 1 

cause she is my oldest doll. I got her 
when I was one. There was a cake, and 
a candle burning on the top of the cake, 
and Peep-Bo was standing near. Frank 
often tells me about it, because he can 
remember. 

Peep-Bo was made of china, and she 
had red cheeks and a green dress and 
lovely yellow hair and blue eyes. I used 
to lick her yellow hair, and it came off, 
and then Nursie washed her, and she 
turned quite white all over. Frank said I 
cried ; but I only remember the day when 
I dropped Peep-Bo, and her head came 
off. Frank said she was “ no good ” then, 
but I loved her better than ever. 

I kept her darling little head in one 
place, and her body in another, and it 
seemed as good as having two Peep-Bo’s. 

One day Frank tried to mend my dolly. 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


1 2 

— Frank is the most clever boy, — and he 
did stick her head on with something 
grandpapa gave him, only he did it wrong, 

— he stuck her head on to her little feet. 
She did look so f tinny, and Frank laughed 
and said she was “ really no good ” now, 
and I must throw her away, — but I never 
threw Peep-Bo away. I loved her more 
than ever. 

S/ie never got lost, poor Peep- Bo. She 
is in the toy cupboard now, with her little 
feet standing on the top of her head. 


CHAPTER II. 


MY CARAVAN. 

Well, I must tell about my birthday. 
I was five on my birthday, and there was 
a big cake, and five candles burning, and 
I knew that I was old. I had lots and 
lots of presents. I had a caravan, and a 
Noah’s ark, and a round ball, and a box 
of chocolates, and heaps of other things ; 
but I had no dolly. I wanted a dolly 
more than all my other toys, because my 
dolly Molly had only one leg and half an 
arm, and her nose was bitten off by Baby ; 
and my dolly Peep- Bo was really no good 
at all except to stand in the cupboard. 

Frank was looking at my toys, and he 
was playing with my fire-escape that 
13 


14 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


Nursie gave me, and he began to reckon 
on his fingers all the toys I had got. 

“ I wish it was my birthday,” Frankie 
said ; “ my birthday comes in the summer, 
and yours in the winter, Bo-Peep. I like 
the frosty and the snowy birthdays the 
best. I do wish mine was a snowy birth- 
day.” 

“ Because they are the nicest birth- 
days,” I said ; “ and I was so glad mine 
was a winter birthday.” 

“You have lots of new toys,” Frank 
said, and he gave a little sigh. “ If you 
like, Bo-Peep, I will take your caravan out 
with me when I go for a walk with father, 
— it is much too cold for a girl to go out, 
and it would be very wrong to let the 
poor horse that is tied on to the caravan 
go without his exercise. Shall I take 
him out for you, Bo-Peep } ” 


MY CARAVAN. 


15 


“ I don’t think so,” I said. “ I think if 
I were to pull him up and down the nurs- 
ery lots of times he’d do very well ; and I 
want to put my doll Molly into the cara- 
van and give her a beautiful ride.” 

Frank is a very fussy boy, and he some- 
times gets red all over his face in a min- 
ute, and then I know he is going to go off 
into one of his fusses. Nursie calls them 
passions, but I call them fusses, ’cause 
they make such a noise. 

Frank said, with his face all red and his 
eyes staring: 

“ You are nothing but a baby, Bo-Peep. 
Of course the horse wants fresh air, and 
you think he will get it in this nursery, 
but you are only a baby girl. I don’t 
care whether your horse gets ill or not. 
I only wish I had a boy to play with.” 

F'rank walked away, stamping his feet 


1 6 ME AND MY DOLLS. 

very loud on the ground, and I saw the 
tips of his ears behind all scarlet. 

I couldn’t stand what he said. I was 
not a baby. I was a grown-up girl, — oh ! 
he was unkind. 

I ran for my doll Molly and I popped 
her into the caravan, and then I took my 
horse by the bridle and I went across the 
nursery and out on to the landing, and I 
went with my caravan, and my doll Molly, 
and my horse, bump, bump, bump, down 
the stairs. I was looking for Frank. 


CHAPTER III. 


MY DOLLY LULLABY. 

On the first landing I met Cook. She 
was coming up the stairs slowly, because 
she is fat. She is a darling, Cook is, and 
she makes cakes and almond taffy, and all 
sorts of lovely things. She was coming 
up-stairs now with something big in her 
arms. 

I said, “ Hullo, Cookie ! What are you 
doing out of your kitchen ? Doesn’t 
you know that this is my birthday and 
you have to see about the cake ? ” 

“ The cake is all right, Bo-Peep,” Cook 
said ; “ and I come up-stairs because of 
you, my dear, — I have brought you this.” 


17 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


l8 


“ Oh ! my dolly, my dolly,” I said. 
“ Oh ! I did want a dolly,” and I dropped 
my horse’s bridle and held out my arms 
very wide. 

“ She’s the best I could give you, dear,” 
Cook said ; “ and I am so sorry I hadn’t 
her finished sooner. I hadn’t her head 
fixed on quite right. Miss Bo-Peep, nor 
her lips painted properly until just now, 
or you should have had her before.” 

“ Oh ! she’s so big, and so soft, and 
so darling ! ” I said. “ Cook, I do love 
you.” 

“ She’s a very neat doll, I think,” Cook 
said. “ I made her out of one of the mas- 
ter’s old shirts and two old pocket-hand- 
kerchiefs. I am sorry that I blotted her 
cheek, but the ink would run when I was 
drawing her nose.” 

“ She has a darling crookedy nose,” I 


MY DOLLY LULLABY. 


19 

said ; “ and I like crookedy noses, because 
you have one, Cookie, dear.” 

Cook laughed. “ Well, Bo-Peep,” she 
said, “ you will take your dolly back to the 
nursery, and I am glad you are pleased 
with her. Dear, dear, you have a grand 
caravan and no mistake ; but why are you 
bringing it down-stairs, love ? ” 

“ I am looking for Frankie,” I said. 
“ Frankie got into a fuss just now and 
went down-stairs. He said a lot of silly 
nonsense about me being a baby, but I 
aren’t, are I, Cook.? ” 

“ Dear me, no,” said Cook ; “ I call five 
quite a weight of years. Don’t you mind 
Master Frank’s nonsense. Miss Bo-Peep. 
Just go back to your nursery, and play 
with your new dolly.” 

“ I will, thank you. Cook,” I said, “ and 
I am so obliged that you think I am old.” 


20 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


Then I bumped my caravan up the 
stairs again, and I held my dolly that was 
made out of father’s old shirts and Cook’s 
pocket-handkerchiefs in my other hand, 
and I run in to Nursie. 

“Nursie,” I said, “see what I have 
got!” 

“Well,” Nursie said, “ I call that a real 
comfortable doll, — a doll that won’t get 
broke, and that you can carry about and 
not care whether it falls or not. Now I 
do like this doll.” 

“ So do I,” I said ; “ I think she is the 
darlingest dolly I ever saw. What name 
shall I call her, Nursie.^” 

“ I think,” said Nursie, “ I would name 
her Lullaby, for if ever there was a doll to 
fondle and kiss, it is that doll in your 
arms this minute. Miss Bo-Peep. Why, 
you can take her to bed with you at 


MY DOLLY LULLABY. 


2 


night and be a real mamma to her, my 
dear.” 

Then I sat down on the floor with my 
dolly in my arms, and I began to put her 
to sleep, because Nursie was putting baby 
to sleep. Nursie’« eyes were, shut and 
she was rocking baby backwards and for- 
wards and singing “ Hush-a-bye, baby.” 

So I shut my eyes and I rocked myself 
up and down, and I sung “ Hush-a-bye, 
baby,” to my dolly Lullaby. 


CHAPTER IV. 


OUT OF BED AT THE WRONG SIDE. 

I CAN never remember how time goes. 
Nursie says time goes so fast; but I think, 
and Frankie thinks the same, that time 
only creeps. 

My dear snowy winter birthday was 
gone, and it seems to me that it was 
months and months after my birthday 
that I spent such a naughty day. Ellen 
says it was only two weeks after my birth- 
day, but I really do think that Ellen is 
wrong. 

Well, — one day I got up naughty. I 
did feel cross, and I did not care for Lul- 
laby, and I did not want the sun to shine, 


22 


OUT OF BED AT THE WRONG SIDE. 23 

and I did not want baby to laugh. I 
would splash when I was in my bath, and 
I would scream when Ellen was tangling 
up my hair after washing it. 

Ellen said, “ Now try and be good. 
Miss Bo-Peep,” but I was not going to 
try, and Nursie said, “ It is my opinion 
that Miss Bo-Peep has got out of bed at 
the wrong side.” 

Now really Nursie was too silly to talk 
in that way, for one side of my bed was up 
against the wall, and how could I get out 
at that side ? I would not take notice of 
Nurse or of Ellen, and I walked into the 
day nursery with my head well up in the 
air. I said to myself, “ I am five, and I 
am no baby, and I have not been treated 
proper.” 

Frank was at his breakfast, — Frank’s 
cheeks were as round and red as apples. 


24 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


and his eyes were dancing up and down, 
and his hair was all goldy because the sun 
was shining across it. 

The minute I came in, Frank said, 

“ Look here, Bo-Peep, you may eat up 
your breakfast as fast as ever you like, and 
then I am going to tell you a secret.” 

I felt quite good again, for I do love 
secrets, and I sat down by Frankie’s side 
and ate up my bread and milk as fast as 
possible. “ I am ready now, Frankie,” I 
said. “ I have eaten up all my breakfast 
of bread and milk, — so what is the secret, 
please ? ” 

Frank’s eyes did twinkle very fast. “ I 
heard what Nursie said just now,” he said; 

“ she was quite right, and you did get out 
of bed the wrong side, Bo-Peep.” 

“ Oh, Frankie,” I began, “ you are a ‘ 
silly.” 



“ ‘ I AM READY NOW, FRANKIE,’ I SAID 


















7 j^ \v: 


A ' 


T *. 



fj 


. 1 


L,’ • / 


f 

I. 


' ^ 


Lt< 


I 


’• »• *v#** 


VV 




V .11 


^ M •+ 

• r 


*/, 


Yik 


n. 












f ^ 




Yi 




■’■ 5 ' tfj 





0 

<.-r 




. --... .... 

icv 'f «-x/> , “ •. 


■<",’ n*.. 


H^. *'- ■> :‘-V^ i •' 1* ^*:-V >- 

HH^ L 5’ < ^■■“1^. > r r ^K% m * «•*» s 

#, 'M"- -i, " -./V:-' A 





f - 


' •»!!. 


% 1 *lT ' > \% 
im «, w V 


, -a- 



> j,' 












OUT OF BED AT THE WRONG SIDE. 25 

“ Hush,” Frankie said, putting up his 
hand. “ Nursie did not mean it literal, — 
it just shows what a baby you still are, 
Bo-Peep, or you would know what she did 
mean. Anyhow, it does not much matter, 
and you need not get so red in the face. 
You are a very naughty girl to-day, aren’t 
you ? ” 

“ Well, perhaps I are,” I said. 

“You feel something as pussy does 
when her coat is rubbed the wrong way.” 

“ I am like pussy,” I said. 

“ Bo-Peep,” Frank said, “ I like you 
when you are naughty.” 

“ Oh ! ” I said. 

“ I do like you when you are naughty,” 
Frank said. “ I will tell you why I like 
you when you are naughty, Bo-Peep; 
because I am naughty, too. I am rubbed 
the wrong way like the pussy cat, and I 


26 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


got out of bed at the wrong side ; and I 
will tell you what it is, Bo-Peep, you and, 
I will do something ’mendous naughty 
together, — this is what we will do.” 


CHAPTER V. 


DOWN THE STAIRS TO THE GARDEN. 

I NEVER did see Frankie look nicer. I 
crept up very close to him, and I said, 
“ I love you, Frankie. I do love you.” 

“ Oh ! that’s all right,” Frankie said, 
“you may love me if you like, Bo-Peep; 
but that is nothing to say to what we have 
got to do now.” 

“ What have we got to do?” I said. 

Frank jumped off his chair and ran to 
the window. 

“ It is snowing, I do declare,” he said. 
“ That is jolly. The sun has gone to bed, 
just as I wished him to go. Come here, 
Bo-Peep.” I came. 


27 


28 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


“ I hope you are not deaf,” Frank said, 
“ because I will have to speak to you in a 
whisper; perhaps I had better run down- 
stairs and fetch grandpa’s ear-trumpet, 
and speak to you through that.” 

“ Oh ! but indeed I am not at all deaf,” 
I said. 

“ Well, hold up your ear and put your 
hands around, and then I will speak right 
in, and you must listen very hard and ask 
no questions, but just do what I tell you.” 

“ All right,” I said, “ I am ready now,” 
and I put my two hands round my ear as 
Frank wanted me. 

We were all by our two selves, and I 
do not know why Frank could not have 
spoke to me as usual, but he did not. He 
blew out his cheeks very big, and he run 
to me, and he shouted so loud: 

“ Let’s come down-stairs without no- 


DOWN THE STAIRS TO THE GARDEN. 2g 

body seeing us, and let’s go out into the 
garden and make snowballs, and let’s take 
your new caravan and your horse Rover 
with us, and let’s come quick ; we must 
be naughty to do it, so let’s come quick 
while we feel naughty.” 

“ Oh, yes ! we must be naughty,” I said, 
jumping up and down ; “ we must be very, 
very naughty to do it, — and oh! Frankie, 
darling, may I put my dear dolly Lullaby 
into the caravan.?” 

“ If you like,” Frankie said. “ It’s a 
very ugly rag doll, and it will be wet 
through when we fill the caravan with 
snowballs, but you may bring it if you 
like. Now, look sharp, Bo-Peep. I will 
run down-stairs and wait for you at the 
garden door, and you come after me as 
fast as possible with the caravan and the 
horse Rover and the doll.” 


30 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


Frank was unkind to speak like that of 
my dolly, but my heart was bumping too 
quick for me to mind him then. 

I ran into the night nursery and I took 
Lullaby out of my cot, and I put her into 
the caravan, — oh! I was afraid Nurse and 
Ellen would see, but they never looked, 
and I got out on the landing, and I ran 
down the stairs, and the horse Rover, and 
the caravan with my doll Lullaby inside, 
came bumpety, bumpety, bump, after me. 


CHAPTER VI. 


DOWN IN A DRIFT. 

When I got down the stairs, Frankie 
said, “Come on, Bo-Peep. No one sees, 
and we will go out by the big door.” 
There was no one in the hall. I joyfully 
helped Frankie open the big doors. 

“ We will be naughtier,” said he, “to go 
through the evergreens into the garden, 
because the snow will rub off on us and 
we will be wetter.” 

So Frankie went along in the new 
snow, and I went behind him and dragged 
my caravan. The trees were heavy with 
snow, and it wet us and dripped on us, 
and the stiff leaves caught in my hair 
31 


32 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


and tore my pinafore. It was very wet 
snow, and we were soon very nice and 
wet. Frankie looked back at me and 
laughed. 

“Oh, dear! oh, dear! you’ll catch it, 
and no mistake.” 

“ And so will you, Frankie,” I said. 
“ Why, you are even naughtier than me, 
for you asked me to do it.” 

“ Well, never mind,” Frankie said. 
“ It’s snowing very fast, and we’ll soon be 
covered. Come along this pathway, Bo- 
Peep, where the snow is very deep. 
There’s icicles hanging on to my nose, 
and there’s a fringe of snow round my 
ears. I’m a kind of snow-man, and you’re 
a Snow-Queen, Bo-Peep.” 

“ I do wish an icicle would come on my 
nose,” I said. “Oh! Frankie, is we deep 
enough now ? ” 


t 




7A 




> * 


W' 




'jCV:, 








♦A ^ 


-:v -c 








i»» 




» % 


tj:. 






rva. 






» '- 7-^ , *» ’ 


ilr' 


'•'’■'iV-V..-. ' 

>•< " ? 

' V'* ' 

' \4 4 t 

- ’ii“* -” ^ < • ■ ' 'I^C 




- 




‘ il'* 




LTl 


4 : 


Ku 


;} « 


- * ** 


< f 3 
. C 


*•«» 


•>#' 


s - 




- • 


-i^ 


ff] 


. • H. ■- 

<r 




•I'.'t, ^ *!»--. .-a 

•* /■-, , ;^V .. i' * ■ ' 




I I 






I*-- ■ 

C'T 


•»-j 


u.* 








f \f^ 


>.*>, 


• * 




u :i 


# A 


r: 


•i 9 




* « 


Ai* 




i T • 


* t 


»4r» 




C‘ 


^ « 


ST 


>r"» 


.# A. 




t 4 


>,1 




m- 




7 V 


'2 


iiv 


i&- > 






4 ^ 


r-f^ 


• ■ j 


V* 


= 


‘/f. 










i- 


4 J* 




t* *t 




'M • 










ttJ 5 : 




4 


S' 


I* 


« 






=^1?. 








■•'■] 


4 • 




. •*. 


1^* 




I t>. 


$9 ^ 




1^ 




4 t> 


Jf 


p:^M 


^ i 


• 1 


j 


/;y 










4. * 

•' . TL 


^ 4 


# ♦ 


: 


' • 5-.* ^ I . S-i 

^ ■* ^"S-S - 


— 4 


■•v' 

Ti* 




« < 




• ■* . < 




r^j 




* V 


k 




* i ■*• - 




>- :ii 


y'fkk^’ 




' # 


i; 


.^■'1 


I 




ff 


¥ f 


v:” 




l 


r . I# 


* < 


> » 


-* * — 


h • 


■ i- 




. ¥ ^X ' ' • 


tfj I 


•>7 t 


’ t 




‘ .» 


rf< 


iiA, 




\*A 


!Ai 


i l! 






« * 






A ftl 


Jf-J 


-.■l 


rr 


iii 

'tits 



DOWN IN A DRIFT. 


33 


We were up to our knees in the soft 
snow, and I think one of my shoes was 
lost, and Frankie did look so funny with 
all his goldy hair turned white, and my 
poor caravan was getting very wet and I 
was afraid Lullaby would catch cold. 

“ I think we have gone deep enough,” I 
said. For I was frightened about poor 
Lullaby, because I did not think she was 
very strong. 

But Frankie said, “Come on! come on! 
I am Snow-King and you are Snow- 
Queen, and I hope we will soon get into 
a drift.” 

Frankie shouted, and waved his arms 
in the air, and he pulled the caravan after 
him, and he did not mind even when the 
poor horse Rover fell on his side. I could 
not keep up to Frankie, and my feet were 
so cold. 


34 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


Just then what do you think happened? 
The caravan fell right over on its side, and 
poor Lullaby was flung out of the caravan. 
I saw my dolly lying flat out on the cold 
snow, and I stretched out my arms to her. 
I thought I was catching her, but instead 
of that I began to fall and fall, and I heard 
Frankie say, “ Hullo! Bo-Peep, you are a 
real Snow-Queen, and you are going to be 
swallowed up in a drift.” 

I was frightened then, and I was .so 
sorry I had been naughty, and I said, 
“ Please, God, forgive Bo-Peep.” But the 
snow was very soft, and it came into my 
mouth and shut up my eyes, and I remem- 
bered no more. 


CHAPTER VII. 


MY LOST DOLLY. 

I DID feel SO funny. I was lying on the 
floor in the nursery, just in front of the 
hot fire, and Nursie was rubbing me and 
mother was crying. Oh ! I did feel such 
a pain in my heart when I saw my own 
darlingest mother crying, and I said, “ I 
am going to get out of bed at the right 
side to-morrow, — I am, Nursie, — I am, 
indeed, and I am not going to do it lit- 
eral, Nursie, because Frankie said I could 
not.” 

My own mother looked at Nursie, and 
said, in such a frightened kind of voice, “ I 
do believe Bo-Peep has gone off her head. 


35 


36 ME AND MY DOLLS. 

and I think we had better send for the 
doctor at once.” 

I was feeling quite warm and nice, and 
I put up my hand to the place where my 
head ought to be, and it was there as safe 
as possible. 

So I said, “ My head has not rolled 
away, mother, and I am sorry I am 
naughty, and I am not going to be 
naughty any more.” 

Nursie said, “Well, you gave us a fine 
fright, miss.” 

But mother only smiled and kissed me, 
and she said, “ Mother’s little darling 
daughter! Mother’s little Bo-Peep will 
try to be good for mother’s sake.” 

After that I was put into a warm bed, 
and I was given a hot drink, and I really 
felt quite nicely. Ellen came and sat by 
me, and I asked her where Frankie was. 



“ELLEN CAME AND SAT BY ME 



Pfr \ 

'# •* ■ •->?«»»».?' < v' 

** ^ y f iVV/-^ ^ 'Vr ^IlH 

: •,»?^S(i ., i 


^ • *T% - 

‘ 1 Vn ‘ 

>*. 

• “4Cl JTt'- '• 

. . _i^ ^ %. ■ ■ 


• '* 


*>» 


J'-' 


X '" *1- - • * ■ • rj 

'■-I' . ■^'' 4 V-';v’r.’- yi.^ r'^'.i^' 

r ^ Vr'-A*. 




i 


< V 


.• 1 * *■ 


\< 


< 


I 


&« 


j» 








v» 





MY LOST DOLLY. 


37 


“ Frankie has been punished,” Ellen said. 
“ He’s down in the study, standing on a 
chair with his face to the wall. He has 
been standing there for a whole hour 
now.” 

“ Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! ” I said. “ I am 
so sorry, — poor, poor Frankie ! ” 

“Naughty Frankie, I say,” Ellen said; 
“ why. Miss Bo-Peep, he might have killed 
you with his pranks. I can tell you, miss, 
your papa was pretty frightened when he 
saw your two little feet sticking up in the 
air and your head down in a drift.” 

“ That was not Frankie’s fault,” I said; 
“ I remember it all now. I was trying to 
save Lullaby. Oh, Ellen, where is my 
dolly Lullaby ? 

“ That doll ! ” Ellen said. “ Oh, we must 
get Cook to make you up another rag- 
baby, Miss Bo-Peep.” 


38 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


“ No,” I said, and I felt my face getting 
so red. “ I do not want no other dolly. 
I want my own Lullaby that has got the 
crooked nose, and the blot of ink on her 
cheek, and what was made out of father’s 
old shirts and two pocket-handkerchiefs. 
Give me Lullaby at once, Ellen. I so 
feared she has caught a great cold out 
in the snow, for she is not strong. Give 
me my dolly, that I may sing her to 
sleep.” 

“ Oh ! I cannot. Miss Bo-Peep,” Ellen 
said ; “ she went down into the drift ever 
so much farther than you did, and she is 
quite lost. You must forget Lullaby, my 
dear.” 

“ I am not going to,” I said. “ You are 
a horrid Ellen, and I hate you. I was 
mamma to Lullaby and I — I — cannot 
forget her.” 


MY LOST DOLLY. 


39 


“ You shall have another doll, my dear,” 
Ellen said. 

“ I will not,” I said to Ellen. “ I was 
mamma to my own Lullaby. Oh ! my 
dolly! my dear dolly !” 

I popped my head under the bedclothes 
and I cried for a long, long time. I was 
a mamma, and my dolly was lost. I did 
cry very hard. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

A GREAT FUSS. 

My dolly Lullaby was quite lost, and I 
could not forget her. I was well again, 
and in the day nursery, and Frankie had 
come back from the study and had forgot 
all about standing on the chair with his 
face to the wall. A great many days had 
gone by, and Frankie and me, we was 
good, and we did not get out of bed the 
wrong way, and we did not go out in the 
snow without leave. We was good and 
we had lots of treats ; we had tea-parties 
and I poured out the tea, and we had 
blind-man’s-buff and Frankie always would 


40 


A GREAT FUSS. 


41 


be the blind man, and father and mother 
often sent for us to come down-stairs. 
We was good, — I know we was; but I 
was not quite happy, for I could not for- 
get Lullaby. 

Frankie used to say, “ Now, Bo-Beep, 
you really are a silly. Who would fret 
for a doll that was only made out of 
father’s old shirts and some pocket- 
handkerchiefs ? ” 

But I always said to Frankie, very 
mournful, “ Frankie, you is not a mamma, 
and you cannot understand.” 

Frankie laughed when I spoke so sol- 
emn, but I used to sit down with my face 
to the wall and cry for Lullaby. 

One day there was a darling fuss in the 
house, — I love fusses. I love to hear peo- 
ple run up and down the stairs very fast, 
and I’m more glad than anything when 


42 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


the doors are banging and people’s voices 
are sounding quick, — quick. 

One day there was a fuss, — a cab came 
and stopped at the front door, and the front 
door bell went ding-dong very loud, and 
Frankie and I, we ran on to the landing 
and peeped through the banisters. The 
front door was opened very wide, and who 
should come in but grandpapa! In he 
came, with his hair as white as the snow, 
and a darling little bend in his back, and 
he fussed up and down in the hall, and 
James the footman brought in heaps 
and heaps of parcels. 

“ Now we’ll have presents,” said 
Frankie. “ Hurrah I hurrah, Bo-Peep I 
are not you glad ? ” 

“ I want to kiss my darling grandpapa,” 
I said. 

“Well,” said Frankie, “I’m sure girls 


A GREAT FUSS. 


43 


always do like kissing. I would not be a 
girl for the world, but of course you can- 
not help yourself, Bo-Peep. Now I do 
wonder what present grandpapa has 
brought to me. I hope he has brought 
me a pistol.” 

“Oh, Frankie!” I said. 

“ Yes, a real pistol,” said Frankie, strut- 
ting up and down. “ Oh I Bo-Peep, do 
let us come down-stairs. There’s a fuss 
down-stairs. Come along, Bo-Peep. Come 
along.” 

I knew it was naughty to go down 
without leave, but I felt that I must get 
into the fuss, and when Frankie pulled 
me, I ran, and every step I ran faster, and 
so, in a minute, I found myself in the 
drawing-room with father and mother and 
my darling little grandpapa. 

I call my grandpapa little, because he is 


44 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


very old, and Ellen says when people are 
old, they begin to grow down, and that is 
why grandpapa has got that stoop in his 
back, and that is why I can see so plain 
into his kindest of eyes. 

He came up to me and he kissed me. 


CHAPTER IX. 

A SHOP DOLLY. 

“ So this is the poor little mamma that 
I have heard such a sad story about ? Give 
me one of your sweetest kisses, darling, 
and take this and see if it will comfort 
you.” 

Grandpapa put a long soft parcel into 
my arms. I knew what it was the minute 
I felt it. My eyes got quite misty, but I 
had no time to cry. I flopped down on 
the floor and I opened the softy parcel, 
and there was a dolly inside. 

“ You’re a mamma again, Bo-Peep,” 
grandpapa said. 


45 


46 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


“Yes, I is,” I said. “She’s a beautiful 
dolly.” 

“ Now that is a doll something worth 
having,” Frank said. “She was made in 
a shop, — that doll was, — she has no hor- 
rid blot on her cheek, and her eyes are 
darling and blue. We’ll take her out in 
the caravan, won’t we, Bo-Peep? and 
aren’t you glad now that you lost that old 
Lullaby, and have got this lovely new 
dolly?” 

“ She is a lovely dolly,” I said, and I got 
up from the floor and I kissed grandpapa. 
“ Grandpapa,” I said, “ may I take my new 
doll that you bought in a shop up-stairs, 
and may I put her on my own shelf in the 
toy cupboard, where she will be very, very 
safe, grandpapa ? ” 

Grandpapa opened his eyes wide. 
“ Why, yes, Bo-Peep,” he said, “ if that is 


A SHOP DOLLY. 


47 


really what you would like best to do. I 
should have thought, however, that poor 
dolly would like a little petting and kiss- 
ing instead of being put safely away in 
the toy cupboard.” 

“ I so much obliged to you, grandpapa,” 
I said, “ and she is a very nice shop dolly. 
I will take her up-stairs now, please.” 

I didn’t care a bit for any more of the 
fuss, and I didn’t want to hurry back 
to the drawing-room, although I heard 
Frankie shouting, and I knew he had got 
' some lovely present from grandpapa. I 
looked at my new doll as I carried her 
up-stairs. She had on a little pink frock 
with flounces, and all the flounces were 
bordered with lace, and she had real shoes 
and stockings, and her arms were the 
same color as my arms, and her face was 
white and pink, and her nose was very 


48 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


straight, and she had goldy hair on her 
head, something like Frankie’s hair. Her 
eyes were blue, and they smiled at me, 
and I took her and give her a kiss. The 
minute I kissed her I knew something, — 
I knew that her pink and white face was 
hard and cold, and that she wasn’t a dolly 
to fondle and pet. 

“ I will not be a mamma to her,” I said 
aloud. “ I will not sing hush-a-bye-baby- 
on-the-tree-top to her. She is a beauty 
shop doll, but I am not her mamma. I do 
not like straight noses on dollies, and I 
do not like pink and white faces, and I do 
like crookedy noses and blots of ink. This 
dolly shall stay in the toy cupboard, and 
Frank may drive her in the caravan if he 
likes, and she may come to my tea-par- 
ties, but I will never love her as I love 
Lullaby.” 


CHAPTER X. 


I AM FRETTING. 

I SUPPOSE I was not well. Nursie said 
so, and so did Ellen, and mother came up 
and felt my forehead and my hands, and 
she said to Nursie, “ Bo-Peep’s very hot,” 
and Nursie looked very solemn back at 
mother and nodded her head, and then 
they both went away and they whispered. 

I suppose it was because they whis- 
pered that the doctor came. He said, 
“ Well, little woman, and what is all this 
about ? ” 

I did like him to call me “little woman,” 
for it showed that I was really grown up, 
and I looked back to see if Frankie was 


49 


50 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


in the room, because I wanted to nod at 
him, to show him how wise the doctor 
was. I said, “ I am a little woman, and I 
don’t know what is the matter, only I am 
hot and I am tired.” 

Then the doctor said, “We will soon 
make that right again,” and then he went 
away, and some medicine came, and I was 
petted a great lot. Everybody was so 
kind, and I liked not being well very much 
indeed, because it even made Frankie re- 
spectful to me. 

Frankie brought out his nicest toys and 
let me play with them, and Ellen showed 
me the birthday present she was making 
for her mother, and Nursie even brought 
baby and let him sit on my knee. 

But the nicest time of all was when 
mother came up to the nursery and I 
curled into her arms and she kissed me. 



COOK AND BO-PEEP. 








I AM FRETTING. 


51 


“ Is there anything I can do to please 
my little Bo-Peep ? ” mother said. 

“ Mother,” I whispered, “ I have a little 
pain down in my heart, and it will not go 
away.” 

“ A pain, darling ? ” mother said. 

“ Yes,” I said to mother, “ and it will not 
go away, — only I am thinking maybe 
Cook could make it a little better.” 

“ Cook, my dear Bo-Peep } ” mother 
said. 

“ Yes, mother,” I said very solemn. “ I 
would like to see our dear, fat Cook, and 
then afterwards I would like to see grand- 
papa.” 

Mother did not say one other word, 
only she rang the bell; and when Ellen 
answered it, mother said, “ Send Mrs. 
Davies up to the nursery, Ellen,” and so 
in a few minutes Cook came. 


52 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


“ Eh ! dear,” Cook said, “ and what is 
the matter with the dear little pet } ” 

I did love Cook, and I made her stoop 
down and I put my arms around her 
neck. 

“ I am fretting. Cook,” I said. 

“ Eh ! dear,” Cook said again, “ and 
what for, my little love ? ” 

“ I am a mamma,” I said, “ and I have 
lost’ my doll-baby, — my own Lullaby is 
’lost in the snow.” 


CHAPTER XI. 

GOING TO LOOK FOR LULLABY. 

Cook’s face all puckered up when I said 
that about Lullaby, and her dear nose 
looked more crooked than ever, and her 
eyes got full of little shining tears. 

“ Well, I never did hear nothing more 
touching than that,” she said, and she 
gave me a big kiss, and she spoke in a 
most grave voice to mother : 

“ With my best respects to you, ma’am, 
the state of the dear child’s heart quite 
overpowers me. Well, well, well, and to 
think that it was only a rag doll ! ” 

I felt quite nicely when Cook went out 


53 


54 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


of the room, and I said, “ She understands, 
my dear Cook does, — she quite under- 
stands.” 

I think I fell asleep after that, and I 
know when I woke I was in bed and 
grandpapa had come into the room. 

Grandpapa was not a bit like Cook, — 
he had the straightest nose, and big shin- 
ing eyes, and hair like silver. He sat 
down close to me and he said, “ Do you 
know, Bo-Peep, that I have just had a talk 
with somebody who is very fond of you ? 
You call her Cook, and I call her Mrs. 
Davies.” 

I nodded my head. 

“ She has made me understand some- 
thing, little Bo-Peep,” grandpapa said, 
“ and I know at last why that lovely shop 
dolly, whom I named Angelina, never 
could find her way to your heart.” 


GOING TO LOOK FOR LULLABY. 55 

“ She was pink and white, and very 
cold, that dolly was,” I said. 

“ And you wanted a soft and battered 
dolly,” grandpapa said ; “ a dolly that 
Frank tells me was very ugly, but that you 
found beautiful because you — ” 

Grandpapa stopped speaking, and I sat 
up in bed, and I looked at grandpapa and 
he looked at me, and then I threw my 
arms round my grandpapa’s neck and I 
cried, and I said, “ Grandpapa, you’re not 
angry, ’cause I can’t help loving crookedy 
noses and blotty cheeks, and little eyes 
that were only put on with ink. They 
are all beautiful to me, and I can never 
love another doll as I loved my baby doll 
Lullaby what was lost.” 

“The fact is,” grandpapa said, “this 
is quite serious ; this must be seen* to. 
Where are you, Maggie (that was grand- 


5 ^ 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


papa’s name for mother) ? Ah ! Maggie,” 
grandpapa said, as mother came into the 
room, “ Bo-Peep has been showing me her 
heart, and I quite understand, and I re- 
spect it, and it must be soothed, Maggie, 
— it must be soothed. The child is fret- 
ting for a doll with a crooked nose and a 
blot on its cheek, and that doll has gone 
down into a snowdrift. Well, we must 
look for it, — we must give time to it, and 
money to it, and we must do it at once, 
Maggie, — we must do it at once.” 

Then grandpapa went very fast out of 
the room, and mother followed him, and 
Ellen came and put her arms round my 
neck, and said, “ Get well, Bo-Peep, dar- 
ling, get well.” 


CHAPTER XII. 


FOUND. 

The snow was beginning to melt in the 
garden, and there was a great fuss down 
by the snowdrift where Lullaby had gone 
down. I could see the fuss from the 
nursery windows, and I liked it very much 
indeed, and I felt more than ever that I 
was grown up and that people knew that 
I was a real mamma. 

The snow went quite away, and the cro- 
cuses and the snowdrops came out, but 
Lullaby wasn’t found. Cookie brought 
me another rag doll with a crooked nose 
and a blot on its cheek, — it was very kind 
of Cookie, but the nose wasn’t crooked 


57 


58 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


the same way, and the blot wasn’t on the 
same part of the cheek, — I didn’t care for 
the new rag doll, and I put it away in the 
toy cupboard with the shop dolly Ange- 
lina. Well, that’s the story of my lost 
dolly Lullaby, and Ellen says “ there’s no 
more to write.” 

Ellen’s quite wrong. Ellen must get 
her paper and ink again, and write away 
as hard as possible. 

’Twas summer-time, and I had finished 
all my story about Lullaby, and I was 
standing and thinking quite mournful 
that I could never be a mamma to dollies 
no more, and that if I had twenty dollies 
they must all lie on the toy cupboard 
shelf, — I was thinking that, when Frankie 
burst into the room, — his hair was all 
goldy, and his eyes so blue, and he said : 



Sy,-b^c • On • the, tree -top • 





* nv 

• I 


1 

1 








FOUND. 


59 


“Look here, Bo-Peep, look here, — I 
was playing down by the brook, ever so 
far down, and I saw a funny kind of little 
cave made by two or three stones that had 
all got jammed together, and stuck in the 
cave, quite dry and with the blot still on 
her cheek, was your old dolly Lullaby. I 
suppose she had drifted down with the 
melting snow. Here she is ! and she’s 
uglier than ever, and I suppose you will 
be more of a mamma to her even than 
you used to be ; but of course, Bo-Peep,” 
Frankie said, “ I am very glad if you are,” 
and there were real tears in Frankie’s 
eyes. 

Oh! didn’t I kiss my own dolly Lul- 
laby, and wasn’t Nursie glad, and Ellen 
glad, and didn’t mother come up and kiss 
me, and Cookie came from the kitchen 
and said : 


6o 


ME AND MY DOLLS. 


“ I do declare ! and there’s the very 
stitches in her neck that I sewed up so 
quickly on Miss Bo-Peep’s birthday.” 

I was a mamma once more, and I sang 
my dolly to sleep with 

“ Hush-a-bye, baby, 

On the tree top.” 

I knew then such a wonderful thing, 
that we doesn’t love things ’cause they’s 
pretty, for every single body but me thinks 
my dolly Lullaby the ugliest doll in the 
world. 


MOPSY AND HANS 



“‘HAVE YOU COME TO SEE US?’ SAID MOPSY.” 

(See page 66.) 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


CHAPTER I. 

IN THE GARDEN. 

“ There was an old woman who lived in a shoe ; 

She had so many children she didn’t know what 
to do, 

So she gave them some broth without any bread, 

And whipped them all round and sent them to 
bed.” 

Mopsy was five years old and Hans was 
six when they went into the country. It 
was then that their wonderful adventures 
began. While they were in town they 
lived in a dull little house which looked 
63 


64 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


into a dull little street, and nothing hap- 
pened to them, although they wished very 
much that something would. In the coun- 
try there was nothing dull, and they were 
now sure that something delightful must 
happen. At the back of their new home 
was a large garden, and here they were 
allowed to play from morning till night. 
The garden was not very orderly; there 
were a great many weeds in the little nar- 
row walks which ran among the flower 
beds. The grass, too, was long and 
uncut, and even some of the flowers 
were quite choked up with bindweed. 
But Mopsy and her brother thought this 
garden delightful. They liked it all the 
better for being untidy, for now the grown 
people made no fuss about it, and the 
children had it to themselves. They 
picked daisies from among the grass. 


IN THE GARDEN. 


65 


and they pulled aside the bindweed to 
^gather the larkspur or the sweet peas, 
which grew beneath. 

Mopsy and Hans had not been many 
days playing in this garden before their 
first wonderful adventure came to them. 
Mopsy was walking on tiptoe, trying 
to catch a large butterfly with crimson 
wings, when Hans shouted in a voice of 
great excitement: 

“ Oh, Mopsy, look there ! ” 

“ Where ? ” asked Mopsy. 

“ There, standing by the larkspur. Oh! 
did you ever see anything so funny, or so 
very, very small ? ” 

Mopsy’s blue eyes had to travel down a 
long way, then she, too, gave a shout of 
delight. “ Oh, Hans ! ” she said, “ let’s go 
to her, — let’s go to her at once, — why, 
she must a real live fairy.” 


66 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


Hans drew back, half alarmed, but 
Mopsy ran straight up to the quaintest 
little figure she had ever seen. 

“ Who are you ? What is your name ? ” 
she asked. “ Why are you standing by 
the larkspur Have you come to see 
us.?^" 

“ If you ask me more questions than 
one, my dear child,” replied the odd little 
figure, “ my poor head will get more mud- 
dled than ever. I am the ‘Old Woman 
who lived in the Shoe.’” 

“ Oh, Hans ! ” exclaimed Mopsy, “ did 
you listen to what she said ? Oh, if there 
is any one I love it is that old woman. 
I have said the rhyme about her over and 
over again, and, oh, how delighted I am 
to ,see her at last ! ” 

Then Mopsy, suddenly remembering 
her manners, dropped a very polite curt- 


IN THE GARDEN. 


67 


sey, and said, in a clear little voice, “ I 
am so glad to see you, old woman ; and 
have you still so many children you don’t 
know what to do ? ” 

“No, my dear, that is not the case just 
now,” replied the little old woman, look- 
ing up at Mopsy, from under the shade of 
her big poke-bonnet. “ Two of my chil- 
dren have been naughty, and have run 
away, and, as I never can bear to see 
vacant places in the shoe, I have’ come to 
try to find two more. Will you come 
and live with me in the shoe, dear little ' 
children ? ” 


CHAPTER II. 

THE OLD WOMAN COMES FOR THEM. 

“We should like it of all things,” ex- 
claimed Mopsy and Hans, in a single 
breath. “ When can we come ? Where 
is the Shoe, and how are we to fit into 
it.?” 

“ I shall feel more muddly than ever if 
I answer so many questions at a time,” 
answered the little old woman. “ I never 
like impatient children, and, even if I take 
you to the Shoe, I won’t keep you long 
there if you worry me. Go home now, 
and go to bed at your usual hour, and 
afterwards — expect me.” 

68 


THE OLD WOMAN COMES FOR THEM. 69 

“ Expect you after we are in bed ? ” said 
Mopsy. “ Oh, how delicious ! ” 

But she spoke to empty air, for the 
little woman had vanished. 

Mopsy and Hans as a rule hated their 
bed-hour, but to-night they were so eager 
to have their clothes taken off, to lie 
down in their nice little white cots, and 
to have the curtains drawn across the 
windows, and the night nursery made as 
dark as possible, that Anna Maria, their 
nurse, became almost alarmed, and won- 
dered if they were going to be ill. She 
could never, however, resist the chance of 
a little quiet time without the children 
playing round her, and she undressed 
them fast enough and popped them into 
bed, and made the room as dark as the 
summer evening would permit, with right 
good-will. 


70 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


“ I expect you are overtired, my pets,” 
she said, “ but if you go to sleep at once, 
you will be as fresh and chirpy as little 
buttons in the morning.” 

Then she shut the door and left the 
children by themselves. 

“ Now,” said Hans, sitting up in bed, 
and turning his pretty flushed face 
towards his little sister. 

Mopsy could not be seen very dis- 
tinctly, for the curtains hung against the 
window were thick and dark, but she held 
up her forefinger warningly to Hans, and 
said in a kind of low, buzzing voice : 

“ Hush, Hans, I am sure we mustn’t 
talk, and of course we must not think 
of going to sleep. Let’s sit very quiet, 
and perhaps she’ll come soon.” 

Then they both sat upright in their 
cots, gazing straight before them, their 


THE OLD WOMAN COMES FOR THEM. 7 1 

hearts beating a little quicker than usual, 
and their two pairs of eyes very bright 
and expectant. 

\ “Mopsy,” said Hans, in an almost fright- 
ened voice. Although he was older than 
Mopsy, he was a little inclined to cling to 
her for protection, whenever anything out 
of the common happened. “ She’s come ! ” 
exclaimed Hans, — and so she had, for she 
stood upon the brass knob of Mopsy’s 
bed, and looked down at her. 

“ It’s all right now,” said the little wom- 
an. “ I said I’d come, and I have come. 
I’m going to take you both to spend a 
day with my children and myself in the 
Shoe. If I like jyou and you like //, — the 
Shoe, I mean, — you can stay there longer. 
But if I don’t like you, and you don’t 
like it, why I’ll whip you both as I do 
the other children, and send you home. 


72 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


Come, now, we have no time to lose. 
I’m a woman of few words, and if I’m 
asked too many questions at a time, I 
get muddled, so don’t ask them, but come 
along.” 

The little woman looked quite fierce, 
and when she waved her wand at Mopsy 
and Hans they both scrambled out of 
bed, and followed her to the door. 


CHAPTER III. 


THEY GROW SMALL. 

They went straight through the day 
nursery where Anna Maria was sitting 
mending a pair of stockings, which Hans 
had shattered at the knees, when he fell 
that day in the garden. Hans and Mopsy 
felt quite sure that she would call to them 
and tell them to go straight back to bed, 
but she did nothing of the kind. On the 
contrary, she went on calmly working, 
and never even turned her head, when 
the old woman said, in a high-pitched, 
rather cross voice: 

“ Come on ! do ! If there is a thing 
that muddles me more than ever, it is 


73 


74 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


having anything to say to children who 
dawdle.” 

Then they went down-stairs and out 
into the, garden, and lo, and behold ! it 
wasn’t evening at all, but morning, bright, 
beautiful, sunshiny morning. The little 
woman walked on in front, and the two 
children followed her, until, at last, they 
all came to where the larkspur stood, 
very erect, and in full flower. The little 
woman only reached up to its lowest 
blossoms, but Mopsy and Hans were 
taller than the flower, and for the first 
time it occurred to them that perhaps 
they could not fit into the shoe. 

“ How are we to manage ? ” they both 
exclaimed together. “ Unless it is a very 
large shoe indeed, we cannot possibly get 
into it.” The little woman turned and 
gave them a very withering glance. 


THEY GROW SMALL. 


75 


“ How is it that I and my eleven children 
all fit comfortably into the Shoe now ? ” 
she said. “ And how is it we have room 
for two more, and the Shoe is so empty 
without the two who ran away, that I 
have to go out to find some more to take 
their places ? You answer me that, and 
don’t both speak at once, or I shall get 
muddled.” 

“ But I thought,” said Mopsy, her words 
coming quickly, and her face getting very 
red, “ that you had twelve children. I was 
always told you had a dozen children, but 
if two have run away, and there are eleven 
in the shoe, that makes thirteen.” 

“ And thirteen is a baker’s dozen,” said 
the old woman. “ Oh ! you do muddle 
me, — now do come on!” 

“ But we are too big,” persisted Hans. 

The little woman stamped her foot. 


76 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


“ Did you, or did you not, ever read ‘ Alice 
in Wonderland ’ ” 

‘“Alice in Wonderland ’ ” they both 
exclaimed. “ Of course we have read 
‘Alice in Wonderland.’” 

“ And how did she get small when she 
wanted to ? ” 

“The first time,” said Mopsy, in a reflec- 
tive voice, “ she drank something out of a 
bottle.” 

“Well, then, stupid, can’t you etit some- 
thing out of a box.^ Here’s a chocolate 
for each of you. Eat them quickly and 
come on, for the children will be starving 
for their breakfast.” 

Then she hurried down the path, 
Mopsy and Hans following her, munch- 
ing their chocolate as they went, and 
growing smaller each moment. By the 
time they reached the end of the garden 


THEY GROW SMALL. 


11 


they were a head and shoulders below the 
little woman, and their feet were so tiny 
they were quite out of breath keeping up 
with her. 

“ Now we have got to get over the wall,” 
said the woman. They no longer called 
her small, for she looked enormous, and 
as for the wall, which was in reality three 
feet high, crane their necks as they would, 
they could not see over it. 


CHAPTER IV. 


THEY ARRIVE AT THE SHOE. 

“We can’t climb over the wall,” said 
Mopsy, who felt inclined to cry, for she 
was now most anxious to reach the Shoe. 

“We can’t possibly climb the wall,” 
repeated Hans. 

“ Am I asking you to climb the wall ? ’' 
asked the little woman. “ Oh, how you 
muddle me.” 

Here she took a whistle out of her 
pocket, and blew a clear, long, sweet note, 
and instantly there flew down over the 
wall three perfectly black crows, each fur- 
nished with an exquisite little saddle and 
78 


THEY ARRIVE AT THE SHOE. 79 

bridle. One crow hopped up to the old 
woman, another to Mopsy, and another to 
Hans, and their bright eyes said, as plainly 
as possible, “ Mount me.” Hans sprang 
into his saddle in a moment, Mopsy into 
hers, and the old woman, to whom the 
largest crow had hopped, into hers ; then 
the birds gently opened their wings and 
flew upwards through the air, and right 
away, into space. 

Mopsy and Hans felt a little out of 
breath at first, but that feeling quickly 
passed, and afterwards, when they were 
describing their adventures, they said 
they never had such a delicious ride in 
their lives. They went what seemed a 
very long way to such tiny people as they 
had now become, but in reality it was not 
far at all. At last the three crows low- 
ered their wings, and put them gently 


8o 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


down on the ground in front of the 
Shoe, 

Yes, certainly, the Shoe did not look 
at all small; it had a door and windows, 
and a roof ; it had a deep heel at one 
side, which the little woman said was the 
kitchen, and a very pointed and turned-up 
toe at the other, which she said was the 
stairway leading on to the roof. The win- 
dows had tiny panes of real glass, and the 
hall door was painted green, and had a 
very pretty brass knocker. There were 
three steps up to the hall door, and, when 
the old woman mounted them and sounded 
a loud rat-tat with the knocker, there was 
a great noise heard within, of hurrying 
and running about. 

“ Those are the children ; oh, how 
naughty they sound to-day; but I have 
my whip handy in a corner. Here, chil- 



THE SHOE. 



THEY ARRIVE AT THE SHOE. 


8l 


dren, open the door, open the door, — I’ve 
brought two more, the prettiest little pair 
you ever saw in your lives.” 

The children now popped their heads 
out of all the windows, and rushed about 
and screamed, and their poor mother cer- 
tainly looked more muddled than ever. 
Mopsy and Hans thought they had never 
seen so many children all together in 
their lives, and could scarcely believe 
there were only eleven. That was the 
exact number, however, and these were 
their names : 

Cilly and Milly, 

Tizzie and Lizzie, 

Jack and Jill, 

Tom and Bill, 

Cobweb, 

Titmouse and 
Hop-o’-my-Thumb. 


82 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


Hop-o’-my-Thumb was the tiniest of 
all. She was a very pretty little creature, 
and she rushed out now, and, taking Mop- 
sy’s hand, dragged her into the Shoe. 
Hans came in between Lizzie and Tizzie. 
When they got inside, they thought the 
Shoe a very large place. 


CHAPTER V. 


THEY BREAKFAST. 

Everything goes by comparison, and 
Hans and Mopsy had not been half an 
hour in the Shoe before they began to 
think it quite possible that they might 
lose themselves in it. There were so 
many staircases, and so many rooms, 
and such funny landing-places, and such 
queer cupboards, that they surely thought 
that they had never before been in such a 
wonderful and bewildering place. The 
rooms were all abundantly furnished. 
They had carpets, and tables, and chairs, 
and curtains to the windows, and blinds 
to keep out the sun. In the drawing- 
83 


84 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


room, which was a long, low room, run- 
ning right across the Shoe, there were 
even pictures on the wall's, — such funny 
pictures of the children and their mother 
in different queer attitudes. 

“ Those are photographs,” said the little 
woman, “ taken of us by people who don’t 
understand us in the least. I have had 
them framed, and hung them up to laugh 
at them. There is nothing my children 
and I enjoy so much as a good laugh, 
for the people in the world have told 
so many lies about us, and they don’t 
understand us in the least. Now, chil- 
dren, breakfast, breakfast, breakfast ! If 
I don’t have my breakfast instantly I shall 
be muddled for the rest of the day.” 

“We’re to have broth without any 
bread for breakfast,” whispered Hans to 
Tizzie and Lizzie. 


THEY BREAKFAST. 


85 


He spoke in a low voice, but the old 
woman heard him and looked at him 
severely. 

“ That’s one of the lies,” she said ; 
“ there’s a picture about that on the 
wall. You can look at it by and by. 
Broth without any bread indeed ! How 
do you suppose I could bring up a family 
like you see surrounding me on that 
wishy-washy fare Oh, dear! Oh, dear! 
Will you come into breakfast, children ? 
My poor head is fairly spinning as if it 
were a teetotum, round and round.” 

“ But you have got the whip, anyway,” 
persisted Hans, who was apt to be very 
obstinate in maintaining his opinion, and 
not always polite about it. 

“ Yes, and I’ll use it on you, if you don’t 
sit quietly down to your breakfast this 
minute.” 


86 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


The little woman shook her wand so 
angrily that Hans dropped into his place 
at the breakfast-table in the pleasant din- 
ing-parlor without a word. 

Tizzie and Lizzie were very attentive 
to him, and he drank the most delicious 
milk out of a cup formed out of a tiny sea- 
shell, but the cup looked anything but 
small to Hans now. There was bread 
and butter for breakfast, and strawberries 
and cream, and, besides the shells full of 
milk for each of the children, a tiny tea- 
pot of tea for the little woman herself. 
The teapot was made of some shining 
metal, and was extremely bright and 
pretty, and the little woman drank sev- 
eral cups, too many for Mopsy to count, 
from its contents. 

“ But I don’t see the honey,” suddenly 
exclaimed Hop-o’-my-Thumb, beginning 


THEY BREAKFAST. 87 

to cry loudly. “ The bees have never 
brought the honey.” 

“ What a silly you are, Hop-o’-my- 
Thumb,” exclaimed Cobweb ; “ you al- 
ways are so impatient. Here come the 
bees.” 

And here they were with a pretty 
Bizz-z-z ! and their honey pouches full of 
honey. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE WHIP. 

Cobweb had scarcely ceased speaking 
before a very loud buzzing sound filled 
the whole room, and two enormous bees 
flew in through one of the open windows, 
and emptied the contents of their honey- 
bags on a little dish evidently set aside 
for the purpose. Having done this, they 
buzzed all round the room, and out again 
through the window. 

“ They bring us our honey like that 
every day,” exclaimed Cilly and Milly. 
“We put the dish all ready, and the bees 
fill it. Why, mother, what is the mat- 
ter ? ” 

“ I’m going to whip you all round,” 
88 


THE WHIP. 


89 


exclaimed the mother. “ It’s part of the 
programme, and you’d better submit with- 
out any howling, or I’ll get too muddled 
to dress the dinner. Let the naughtiest 
child go and fetch the whip.” 

It was wonderful how good every child 
in the Shoe became at this moment. Hop- 
o’-my-Thumb put her hands meekly into 
her lap. Cobweb looked straight before 
him. Jack and Jill began whistling softly 
under their breaths, and as to Cilly and 
Milly, they went up to their mother, and 
began fanning her gently with dock- 
leaves. 

“ Let the naughtiest child go and fetch 
the whip,” said the little old woman, pour- 
ing herself out her thirteenth cup of tea 
as she spoke. 

“ Hans, you are much the naughtiest 
child,” exclaimed Tizzie, poking Hans 


90 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


violently in the ribs, and causing him 
to drop a spoonful of honey, which he 
was raising to his lips, on to the table- 
cloth. “ There, now,” continued Tizzie, 
“see what you’ve done, — you are much 
the naughtiest, — it’s either you or Mopsy 
who must go. Isn’t it, Lizzie ? ” 

“ Either Mopsy or Hans, certainly,” 
echoed all the other children in the 
Shoe. 

“ Oh ! if it comes to that, I won’t put 
it on Mopsy,” exclaimed Hans, who was 
a very plucky little fellow, and who sud- 
denly remembered two things : first, that 
he was a year older than his sister; sec- 
ond, that he was a boy, and ought, there- 
fore, to protect her. 

“ I’ll go, if it comes to that,” he said, 
and he slipped down off his seat, and 
made for the door. 




“ HE THREW THE WHIP OUT AS FAR AS IT COULD GO.” 








THE WHIP. 


91 


“ Let the naughtiest child fetch the 
whip,” said the old woman, as she drained 
her thirteenth cup of tea. “ Oh ! how 
muddled I feel ! Let the naughtiest child 
fetch the whip, and fetch it at once.” 

Hans walked out of the room, these 
words sounding in his ears. 

He went along two passages and up 
some funny little flights of stairs, until 
at last he came to the drawing-room, 
where the photographs hung on the 
walls, and the curtains, made out of 
cobwebs, swayed gently backwards and 
forwards in the soft summer breeze. In 
one corner of the room stood the dread- 
ful whip. Hans seized it in both his 
little hands, — oh! what tiny hands he 
had now, although they did not look at 
all small to himself, — and then a sudden 
brave thought came into his head. He 


92 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


marched straight to the open window, 
and threw the whip out as far as it could 
go. He stood looking out of the win- 
dow for a few moments, and then turned 
empty-handed, and walked back slowly to 
the parlor. 


CHAPTER VII. 

THE OLD WOMAN FALLS ASLEEP. 

He was very much relieved when he 
got there. The children had all left 
the breakfast-table, and were scrambling 
about, and tumbling about over one an- 
other on the floor. Hans quite started 
when he saw them ; they had been all so 
good and mouse-like when he left them. 
Now they were screaming, and laughing, 
and quarrelling, and making up again, all 
in a breath, and Hans wondered if there 
was another whip, and if it had been used 
by the little woman, and if the punishment 


93 


94 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


— the dreaded punishment — was already 
a thing of the past. 

He came in shyly, looking carefully 
round him, and then he saw the explana- 
tion of everything. The little woman was 
lying back in her chair, with her mouth 
wide open, snoring loudly; she was fast 
asleep. 

“ She always sleeps like that when we 
fan her with dock-leaves,” said Tizzie 
and Lizzie. “ She’ll sleep like that for 
hours now, and forget all about the whip. 
Let’s come and play.” 

Then Tizzie took one of the little boy’s 
hands in her own, and Lizzie took the 
other, and Milly joined hands with Lizzie, 
and Cilly with Milly, and Jack with her, 
and Jill with him, and so on, and so on, 
until all the children of the Shoe danced 
out of the parlor and along the passages. 


THE OLD WOMAN FALLS ASLEEP. 95 

and through the drawing-room, and out 
again, up the narrow stairs at the toe of 
the Shoe, until they found themselves on 
the flat roof overhead. 

Here they did have a time of it. Never, 
never surely before did children laugh so 
heartily, or shout so loud; never before 
was there known to be such a delightful 
game of “ hide-and-seek ” as they played 
around the chimney-pots on the top of 
the Shoe. 

Hans laughed until he felt ill, and then 
he whispered to Mopsy that never, never, 
never would he go home again. Mopsy, 
too, was wildly excited ; she thought Hop- 
o’-my-Thumb one of the dearest little play- 
mates in all the world. She preferred her 
to the baby kitten at home, and to the 
unfledged doves in the dove-cote. Mopsy 
was a very tiny creature herself now, but 


96 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


Hop-o’-my-Thumb was even smaller, and 
Mopsy already loved her as if she were 
really her tiny sister. 

The children .played for a couple of 
hours, the merriest, jolliest games, when 
Cobweb suddenly exclaimed that he felt 
very hungry. Instantly the whole party 
joined hands, danced down the narrow 
staircase, along the passages, through the 
drawing-room, through the dining-parlor, 
where the little woman still slept and 
snored, and so down into the heel of 
the Shoe, — in other words, the kitchen. 

“We’d better be quick,” said Lizzie. “ I 
saw mother nodding her head a little ; she 
generally does that before she wakes ; now 
let’s choose what we each like best, and 
take it up on the roof to eat before 
mother awakes, and gets more muddled 
than ever.” 



“ THE 


WHOLE PARTY DANCED DOWN THE NARROW 
STAIRCASE.” 



# 


a 


« 





% 

» 


% 


I 






t 


' I 4 


I 


« 




* t 


4 






. 'V #/ 

»* ^ •,* 


# 


. • 

1 


t 





« 


4 


k 


1 



' 


^ • 



I 


1 I * 




THE OLD WOMAN FALLS ASLEEf. 97 


At these words of Lizzie’s the children 
hastened to provide themselves with what 
eatables they could lay hands on. Hans 
secured a pot of strawberry jam ; Mopsy 
a tiny pigeon pie ; Tizzie made off with 
two hard-boiled eggs ; Lizzie had a small 
plum cake ; Jack filled a little bag with 
chocolate creams, and Jill stuffed her 
pockets with six squares of butter-scotch. 
Hop-o’-my-Thumb had a large, rosy apple, 
and Titmouse clasped a gingerbread pig 
with gilt eyes in both his hands. 

“ I’m more muddled than ever,” said a 
voice in the distance. The children fled. 


CHAPTER VIII. 


THEY RUN AWAY FROM THE SHOE. 

They ran as hard as ever they could. 
They forgot to clasp hands, and went 
helter-skelter through the Shoe. So great 
was their fright and agitation that they 
dropped their spoils as they ran. The 
gingerbread pig fell from Titmouse’s tiny 
fingers, and was broken into a thousand 
pieces, and the pot of jam which Hans 
carried fell with a crash on the floor. 

“ Oh ! was there ever such an unfortu- 
nate woman ! Oh, these children, these 
children ! I’m more muddled than ever ! ” 
screamed a voice in the distance. “ See if 
I don’t act up to all the pictures after this, 

98 


THEY RUN AWAY FROM THE SHOE. 99 

— see if I don’t give them some broth 
without any bread, — see if I don’t whip 
them all round and put them to bed. 
Oh, my poor head ! I’m more muddled 
than ever ! ” 

The children ran and ran. They scram- 
bled up the steep stairs at the toe of the 
Shoe, and once again, panting and breath- 
less, found themselves on the roof. 

“We can’t stay here, — we can’t pos- 
sibly stay here,” said Cilly. “ She’ll find 
us soon, and she’ll whip us so hard. We 
must go away, — we must all go away 
until she is tired, and has had another 
sleep, and then she’ll forget all about it ; 
let’s make for the dock-leaf-tree, let’s make 
for the dock-leaf-tree ! ” 

One side of the roof of the Shoe was 
shaded by what looked like a huge over- 
shadowing tree, but was really only a fine 


lOO 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


dock-leaf plant. All the children rushed 
in this direction, and a moment later they 
were all swarming down the dock-leaf-tree 
as hard as they could go. 

“She’ll whip us all round and send us 
to bed,” they said. And their little faces 
really looked quite pale and pinched with 
anxiety. 

Hans and Mopsy, although they were 
quite small children now, and had come 
to consider the Shoe as their rightful 
home, were not nearly so frightened as 
the others. They held their heads high, 
and felt rather inclined to look down on 
Cilly and Milly and the rest. They had 
no right to do so, for their bravery was 
only caused by the fact that they both 
knew, — for Hans had whispered the im- 
portant news to his sister, — that the 
dreadful whip was no longer in the house. 




ft 



" ;v- ■ - ->n. 

'v ' JB ^B ' ^ * B* I I L '■ *.■ '. H * i •ijv • ’ 

:■ . '^.■i-'^js^W- ‘--; ■»— - ■ ■'^*'' V .-; 

> hi' -~ ’' vT« ■ >1 . * K • ^ iOWljgl 



5rS 



V 41'^ , «,«'** * & ^ ' 

* . ' -*t.* ^ ■• 






.^1 - >*'5 


THEY RUN AWAY FROM THE SHOE. lOI 


The dock-leaf-tree, however, looked 
most inviting, and Hans and Mopsy 
swarmed down it with the rest. When 
all the children found themselves at the 
bottom, they looked in one another’s 
faces ; they knew they had done a very 
bold thing, and they quite caught their 
breath with wonder and delight. 

“ Let’s go into the forest,” said Cilly, 
“ now that we are here ; now that we are 
every one of us out of the shoe, let’s go 
into the forest, and talk to the giant mice 
and ask the bees to bring us our dinner.” 

“ But there’s no forest near here,” said 
Hans, who remembered his old life quite 
well. “ This is a terrible flat country, and 
there aren’t any trees.” 

“ What do you call those ? ” said Tit- 
mouse, pointing with his finger. “ If you 
don’t call those trees, Hans, you must 


102 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


have lost your eyes. See, just at the 
other side of that wide, white plain.” 

The white plain was in reality the 
highroad, and Titmouse’s trees were tall 
grasses. To Hans also they now looked 
enormous. He smiled and took the little 
girl’s hand, and said he would like to go 
into the forest. 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE OLD WOMAN WAKES UP. 

All the children had a very happy 
time in the forest, and the giant mice 
came out and talked to them, and the 
bees brought them honey, and a splendid 
butterfly with brown wings and a scarlet 
body took Hop-o’-my-Thumb for a ride, 
and brought her back again to her broth- 
ers and sisters quite safely. Titmouse 
wanted to go, too, but the butterfly said 
he was too heavy, — she promised, how- 
ever, that if the children stayed out long 
enough she would send a couple of 
friendly bats to take them for a ride in 
the evening. They sat down very com- 
fortably under the tall sheltering grasses, 
103 


104 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


and dear little Hop-o’-my-Thumb got into 
Mopsy’s lap, and laid her head on her 
shoulder. They had talked and laughed 
together, and were beginning to get a 
little hungry again, and to wish that the 
bees would bring them some ;nore honey, 
when a high, passionate crying voice was 
heard coming nearer and nearer: 

“ I am the old woman who lives in the Shoe, 

I have so many children I don’t know what to 
’ do,— 

So I will give them some broth without any 
bread, 

And I will whip them all round, and send them 
to bed! 

I will^ I willy — oh, my poor muddled head ! ” 

The voice sounded alarmingly near, and 
although Cilly and Milly and most of the 
other children managed to escape, poor 
Mopsy suddenly found herself lifted on to 


THE OLD WOMAN WAKES UP. IO5 

the little old woman’s shoulder, who began 
running with her as fast as ever she could 
back to the Shoe. Hop-o’-my-Thumb still 
clung to Mopsy, but the little old woman 
scarcely saw her, or, if she did, she did not 
care. She ran as hard as ever she could, 
shaking poor Mopsy up and down as she 
did so. At last she reached the Shoe, and, 
running up the steps, let herself in with a 
tiny latch-key, and rushed into the din- 
ing-parlor. Here she threw Mopsy and 
Hop-o’-my-Thumb violently on to the 
dining-table. 

“ Oh, you naughty children,” she said, 
as soon as she could speak ; “ you naughty, 
naughty children! Where’s the whip? 
What have you done with the whip ? 
Don’t you know that I am lost without 
it? That I have no authority at all with- 
out it ? ” 


io6 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


“ If you please,” said Mopsy, not an- 
swering the question about the whip, but 
drawing herself up to as dignified a height 
as her tiny stature would allow, and still 
holding Hop-o’-my-Thumb by the hand, 
“ if you please. I’d like to go home, and 
I’d like to take Hop-o’-my-Thumb with 
me. You said that Hans and I might 
come for a day to see if we liked it ; well, 
we don’t like it. We’d rather go home, 
and be a little dull, than have all the 
frights you give the children who live 
in the Shoe. May I go home now, and 
take Hop-o’-my-Thumb with me, old 
woman ? And will you send Hans home, 
too, as soon as he comes back ? ” 

“ I never ! ” said the little old woman. 
“I never! oh, my poor head! Home.'^ 
It’s to bed you shall go, — to bed without 
any bread ! Come, come, come ! ” 


CHAPTER X. 


TIME TO GO TO BED. 

The little old woman took Mopsys 
hand, leaving poor Hop-o’-my-Thumb 
sitting all alone on the centre of the 
dining-table. She hurried her up-stairs, 
she hurried her down-stairs, and through 
my lady’s chamber, until they came to 
a kind of dormitory or long, low room 
at the side of the Shoe, with numbers of 
tiny white beds in it. 

The beds stood in rows, and were 
neatly made, and covered with very white 
sheets, and snowy counterpanes, and pil- 
lows with pretty frilled edges. 

They looked quite cool and inviting, 

107 


Io8 MOPSY AND HANS. 

and when Mopsy saw her bed, she ceased 
to cry or to struggle, and thought that it 
would not be at all unpleasant to lie down 
for an hour or so, and have a sleep. 

The moment she got her into the room 
the little woman began to undress her. 
She took off her clothes one by one, and 
gave her instead a little white night-dress, 
all frilled and ruffled, and ornamented 
with tiny' bows of sky-blue ribbon. 
Mopsy exclaimed with delight when she 
saw it; it was much, much prettier than 
the night-dress she wore at home. 

“Now,” said the woman, “you shall 
step into bed as soon as you are ready.” 

“ But I am ready now,” said Mopsy, 
who began to feel herself getting more 
and more sleepy. 

“ Nothing of the kind ; you are not 
ready until I say the word, and I don’t 


TIME TO GO TO BED. lOQ 

intend to say it until you have folded up 
those clothes, which you have just taken 
off, to my satisfaction. There they are, 
on the floor ; pick them up and fold them, 
and let me know when you have done. 
I’ll sit here. I’m not in the slightest 
hurry.” 

“ That won’t take long,” said Mopsy, 
laughing, and picking up her frock and 
her little white petticoat, and - her shoes 
and stockings, and placing them in what 
she considered a very* neat attitude on 
the chair near her little bed. Then she 
folded her hands, and looked at the little 
old woman. 

While Mopsy was folding her clothes 
the old woman had seated herself on 
another of the little beds, and, shutting 
her eyes and opening her mouth, began 
to sleep and to snore very loudly. 


I lO 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


“ The clothes are folded now,” sang 
out Mopsy, in a voice of triumph. 

The little woman instantly opened the 
corner of one eye, and glanced in the di- 
rection of the chair, where Mopsy’s clothes 
now lay in a little pile, the shoes on the top 
of everything else, looking as neat as pos- 
sible. 

“You don’t call that tidy?” said the 
little woman. “ Begin again,” and she 
stretched out her foot and knocked the 
chair over, scattering all the clothes on 
the floor. 

Poor Mopsy did begin again, and again, 
and again, but every time with the same 
result; the little woman opened the corner 
of one eye, and said, “ You don’t call that 
tidy ? ” and knocked the chair over with 
the point of her toe. 

Poor Mopsy ! she felt so tired, and every 


TIME TO GO TO BED. 


I I I 


moment she grew sleepier, until at last 
she began to fold up her clothes with her 
eyes shut, with very little idea of what she 
was doing, and caring very little whether 
it was done tidily. 


CHAPTER XI. 


MOPSY REBELS. 

Presently a great noise, the sound of 
a great many footsteps, the clatter of a 
great many tongues, began to fill the Shoe. 

“ It’s the children come back,” said the 
little old woman, suddenly starting to her 
feet. “ Oh ! I must whip them all round, 
— oh ! my whip, my whip, — oh ! my 
head, my head!” 

She ran out of the room, just pausing 
for a second to knock Mopsy’s chair over 
for the hundred and seventh time. The 
moment she was gone Mopsy ceased to 
fold her clothes, and, leaving them just as 
they were on the floor, tumbled into bed 


1 12 


MOPSY REBELS. 


II3 

and fell into a sound sleep. She had, 
most likely, many dreams in that slumber, 
for the house was full of the most exciting 
noise and turmoil ; the children were rush- 
ing, and screaming, and dancing about, 
now laughing, now crying, now quarrel- 
ling, now kissing to make friends again. 
The little old woman’s shrill tones were 
sometimes heard above the turmoil, and 
sometimes it was only the children’s noise 
which filled the house, for the moment 
Cilly or Milly could get hold of a dock- 
leaf, they fanned their mother, whereupon 
she instantly, wherever she was, fell sound 
asleep. 

Mopsy, however, was so tired that she 
slept through all the uproar, and when 
she at last opened her eyes, and sat up 
in her little white bed, she looked on 
a strange sight. 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


II4 

All the children, in white night-dresses, 
frilled and ruffled, and ornamented with 
tiny bows of sky-blue ribbon, were stand- 
ing by their beds, folding their clothes, 
and the old woman was going, as fast as 
ever she could, from one chair to another, 
knocking it over with the point of her toe. 
The children were sighing and groaning, 
and doing their very best, but not one of 
them managed to fold his or her clothes 
to the satisfaction of the little woman. 

Mopsy sat up and looked around her 
with a beating heart. Oh ! what a dread- 
ful place the Shoe was, and oh ! how tired 
and white poor Hans looked ! Surely the 
old woman did not mean her to begin 
folding her clothes again ? Well, she 
would not, — she would simply defy her 
to her face. 

“ Oh ! there you are, Mopsy,” said Hans. 



“ALL THE CHILDREN WERE FOLDING THEIR CLOTHES. 



^ . 


t 


!• » 


» 


> 


f 


4 




« 

% # 


» 

I 


•* » 









» 








1 




f 






» •■ 


* * 


« 



\ 



‘ ^ 

" « 

• • 




«» ' 
f 


t * 


J 




* 


\ 


9 

* 



/ 


• I 

•• 





# 



i 



. -Zr 


i 






r 


!• 




1 



MOPSY REBELS. 


II5 

“ How tired I am ; I want to go to bed, 
and she won’t let me; she says I have 
not folded my clothes tidy enough ; oh ! 
there, she has knocked them over again !” 

“Nonsense!” said Mopsy, in a strong 
voice ; “ they are quite tidy enough. If 
she chooses to throw them on to the floor, 
she must pick them up herself. Get into 
bed, Hans, and go to sleep.” 

Hans stared at his sister, then, glancing 
round at the little woman, he began climb- 
ing into his delicious white bed, and pre- 
paring to lay his drowsy little head on his 
soft pillow. Instantly, every other child 
followed his example ; the clothes were 
left helter-skelter on the floor, and the 
little old woman stood alone in the centre 
of the room. 

“ If I don’t whip them all round for 
this ! ” she exclaimed. “ Oh I my whip, my 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


I l6 

whip, — where is my whip ? ” and she 
rushed out of the room. 

She was so angry at first that she could 
not speak ; she could only stand and stare 
at the small heads, resting on the small 
pillows. But she soon recovered herself. 


CHAPTER XII. 


MOPSY AND HANS GO BACK TO THEIR' 
HOME. 

“ Let’s lock the door,” said Mopsy, the 
moment they were alone. “ Why should 
she worry us like this ? Let’s lock the 
door, and then let’s every one of us run 
away to my father and mother, and to 
Anna Maria, our nurse. Oh ! let’s come 
at once.” 

Mopsy, as she spoke, hurried towards 
the door, and, turning the key in the lock, 
came back and began to put on her 
clothes, hurrying as she did so. 

“ We’ve no time to dress if we go,” said 
Titmouse. “ We must go at once, just as 


Il8 MOPSY AND HANS. 

we are, — but I don’t think I want to go. 
I’m fond of mother, and I’m used to her 
ways, and I couldn’t live in any house 
except a shoe. I know I couldn’t. Is 
your house a shoe, Mopsy ? ” 

“ Oh, no ! ” said Mopsy, in a voice of 
disdain. 

“ Then it wouldn’t suit me at all. Moth- 
er’s very nice except when she’s contrary ; 
she’s generally contrary, but no matter; 
good night. I’m going to sleep.” 

Titmouse’s words were echoed by all 
the other children, except Hans, who 
came close up to Mopsy, and whispered, 
with tears in his eyes, that he wanted 
to go home very badly indeed. 

“ Then we’ll go together, dear,” said 
Mopsy. And they both climbed out of 
one of the windows, and got into the 
dock-leaf-tree, — only just in time ; for 


MOPSY AND HANS GO HOME. II9 

the old woman had come back to the 
door, and was thundering violently at 
it, and shouting that she had found her 
whip, that she had seen it from the draw- 
ing-room window, and had brought it 
back. 

Hans and Mopsy trembled violently 
when they reached the ground, but never- 
theless, they managed to get safely away, 
and as they trotted off towards their home 
they looked into each other’s eyes, and 
declared solemnly that nothing would 
ever induce them to spend another day 
in the Shoe. 

“ Well, children,” said Anna Maria, 
their nurse, the next day, “ it’s quite 
plain that you two must have eaten 
something to disagree with you yester- 
day, for never, never, did I sleep in the 


20 


MOPSY AND HANS. 


room with such fidgety, restless little 
folks.” 

Hans and Mopsy looked at each other. 

“ Oh ! we’ve had such a wonderful 
night,” said Mopsy, “only it seemed to 
be a day; we were with the little old 
woman who lives in a shoe.” 

“ Poor dear,” said Anna Maria, going 
up and feeling Mopsy’s hands, “ have you 
got a bit of a headache, dear, that you talk 
so queer.? ” 

“ Oh, no ! ” said Mopsy. “ I feel very 
well, only I never knew I could so sud- 
denly become a big girl again.” 

“ And I, a big boy,” said Hans. 

' And then they both went out, and sat 
side by side, close to the big larkspur, 
and began to talk about their adventures. 
Nothing would ever induce either of them 
to believe that they had dreamt some- 


MOPSY AND HANS GO HOME. 12 1 

thing, — both of them together, — and that 
the little old woman and her eleven chil- 
dren did not live quite close to them. 

“We’ll go and look for her, some fine 
morning,” said Hans. “ I’m quite sure I 
shall know exactly where to find her and 
the Shoe, and all the children. But never 
again will we spend a day there, will we, 
Mopsy ? ” 

“ Never,” said Mopsy. 



9 



r 

V 


4 















r,- 






• • I 


\ • 


r I 




I 

\ ■ 


.'t£ 


.1 


* • 







\ 


V 


V- s 


k <> 


i ’ 


I 




• > . 




••• ^ 


t I 


» ‘ 


■ « 


.' ■>; 


w . ♦ 


I 1 


f. 


» • / 


t , 

« 


m 





> f 


I 






I 

































